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4-dimensional universe
The 4-dimensional universe was a computer simulation created by Elyon, an alien who lived in the 26-dimensional universe. It ran for a total of 35 billion years, starting with a Big Bang and ending with a Big Rip. It had four effectual dimensions: three for space and one for time. Its matter was organized into planetary systems, each with one or more stars around most of which orbited one or more planets. The planetary systems were organized into galaxies, which, in turn, were organized into superclusters. Shape Most intelligent species inhabiting the 4-dimensional universe had hypothesized three possible shapes for it: *the sphere (a closed universe that expands, slows down and contracts) *the sheet (an open flat universe with a rate of expansion that tends to zero) *the saddle (an open curved universe with a rate of expansion that tends to a positive fixed value) As discovered by Clu, all three models were wrong, and the 4-dimensional universe was, in fact, shaped like a hypertorus with a constantly accelerating rate of expansion. Glitches The computer that ran the simulation was not fast enough to faithfully simulate the 26-dimensional universe. In fact, it can be demonstrated that, no matter the number of effectual dimensions, the cheapest way to simulate a universe with the same number of dimensions at an atomic level is to build an identical universe. For this, Elyon had decided to create a simplified simulation, with only 4 dimensions instead of 26, with a finite speed of light, reusing as much code as possible. This had led to a number of glitches in the simulation: *Anything approaching the speed of light would experience an increase in mass, a decrease in length along the direction of motion and a slowdown in subjective time. *Gravity and acceleration would distort space and time as well, creating phenomena like event horizons and gravitational lensing. *Particles would sometimes behave like waves, and waves like particles, due to the two phemomena being controlled by the same code. *Particles would sometimes pass through supposedly impassable barriers, due to the simulation not splitting the motion of a particle into enough fragments to grant the activation of collision routines. *Attempts to know the position or momentum of any particle beyond a certain precision would always corrupt the other value. Backdoors Elyon had implemented backdoors in the simulated physical laws, to let the programs he designed for the study of life reach any point in the 4-dimensional universe in no time. They all had to do with the properties of ununpentium-299. *Normally, it was completely stable, despite an excessive amount of neutrons per atom. *Its strong force extended past the radius of its atoms and its effects were similar to gravity. *When bombarded with protons, it produced an isotope of livermorium that would decay to anti-hydrogen and generate a gravitational wave that could be focussed like an electromagnetic wave. This would distort space, so that the distance between the source of the emission and the focal point would be reduced to zero. This allowed the Impossible Species to instantly transmit information and matter anywhere in the universe. End of the 4-dimensional universe Thirty-five billion years after the start of the simulation, the expansion had accelerated so much that every structure moved away from the others faster and faster, causing everything to disgregate. Initially, this involved superclusters, then individual galaxies, then stars within the galaxies, then the celestial bodies in the planetary systems, then the molecules of each individual object. The 4-dimensional universe ended when the expansion had become too fast for atoms to hold together.